Surprisingly Painless

Phill and I went to see his accountant today to file our tax returns. Considering the deadline is 31 October, we were really late. Most of our friends and colleagues had already done theirs in August, when they received their group certificate (a summary of your year's salary and tax payments issued by your company).

When I saw her, the accountant, I liked her. She was very bubbly and very efficient. She asked Phill and I alot of questions so she could help us claim as much tax reliefs as we are entitled. And she gave very good advice in terms of buying our first home. She said to try and buy a reasonably priced one and not to buy one beyond our means cos we'll have a tough time servicing our loan, which is true. In all, the appointment went better than I thought cos I'm unsure about the tax system here and was quite overwhelmed by it. I sure am glad we have an accountant to deal with it (the fee we pay the accountant could also be claimed under our tax return!).

One thing different about Australia, as compared to Singapore, is we don't have the CPF system here so everything is paid by cash. If we want to buy a house, we have to cough up at least a 20% cash deposit to the value of the house and take out a commercial bank loan. So everything is basically dealt in cash. Our superannuation, similar to CPF except its handled by private companies not the government, is not like the CPF, where if you don't touch it, it'll at least increase because of the interest earned. In superannuation, our money can decrease because of the annual fee, and many other charges that deplete the total amount.

I had a total amount of $80 in one superannuation account that a part-time company I worked for had applied for me. I just received the statement and it shrunk down to $50!!! Arrgghhh! Makes me angry!